SFF Travelling Film Festival Treks to the Mid North Coast

Sydney Film Festival brings acclaimed Australian director Jennifer Peedom’s new documentary Sherpa, fresh from its packed screenings at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals, to the Mid North Coast. This visually-stunning and compelling doco follows Peedom and her team as they set out to film the 2014 climbing season on Everest from the point of view of the Sherpa community but instead end up capturing one of the mountain’s greatest tragedies. The film is part of an impressive line-up of global cinema on the road for the 2015 Travelling Film Festival, screening in Nambucca Heads from 22 – 25 October, and Port Macquarie from 23 – 25 October.

With five short films and eleven feature films, including two documentaries, ranging from locations as far-reaching as France, Denmark, India, Ireland, South Korea, Germany, Sweden and the USA, film fans in both Nambucca Heads and Port Macquarie will be spoilt for choice when it comes to world-class cinema over the Festival weekend.

Travelling Film Festival Manager Alicia Emery is thrilled the Festival can bring these important films to the Mid North Coast. “This carefully curated film program includes a selection of 2015 Sydney Film Festival highlights as well as internationally acclaimed films that would otherwise not be screened to audiences outside of capital cities,” Emery said. “We hope film lovers on the Mid North Coast will enjoy them as much as they delighted and entertained Sydney audiences.”

Important cinematic features not to be missed include Phoenix, the sixth collaboration between director Christian Petzold and actor Nina Hoss (Barbara), a drama about a concentration-camp survivor returning to Berlin to reclaim her life. Holding the Man, a compelling Australian drama that calls for equality in the most endearing way will also join the bill. The latter was adapted from Australian playwright Tommy Murphy’s stage production and was directed by Aussie theatre veteran Neil Armfield.

Fans of Game of Thrones star Nicolaj Coster-Waldau will see the actor in a new light in A Second Chance, a powerfully dramatic thriller created by Oscar-winning director Susanne Bier. Grandma, a film exploring womanhood in America over three generations, sees the fabulous Lily Tomlin in great form.

Also screening is 99 Homes, Ramin Bahrani’s intelligent, adrenaline-charged thriller set against America’s recent housing crisis follows a desperate man as he begins working for the very man that initiated his downfall. Described by the late, great film critic Roger Ebert as “the director of the decade”, 99 Homes is a film not to be missed.

Thriller lovers are also going to go crazy over Victoria, a spectacular one-shot film detailing a Berlin bank robbery, and for those looking for something truly out of the box then A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existenceby Swedish visionary Roy Andersson will not disappoint.

From South Korea, the festival favourite My Love, Don’t Cross That River won’t leave a dry eye in the house as it tells the touching story of a South Korean couple married for 76 years.

The Festival will also screen the family-friendly The Crow’s Egg by filmmaker M. Manikandan. Dubbed the new Slumdog Millionaire, The Crow’s Egg is a funny, charming South Indian tale of two mischievous and resourceful brothers from a Chennai slum who become determined to taste pizza for the very first time.